Working Stiff (Revivalist) [Paperback]

My grandfather used to say "Life's tough, and then you die."

But for Bryn Davis, death is only the START of her troubles. Rachel Caine's "Working Stiff," the first book in a new series, quickly kills off the heroine and reanimates her, and launches her into a bizarre, action-packed adventure. However, this book can be downright depressing at times, and the story sometimes drags in overcomplex circles.

Ex-soldier Bryn Davis takes a job as a funeral director, but her first day is a disaster. A teen girl kills herself, Bryn is pursued by the creepy Fast Freddy, and she discovers that her boss is selling a strange drug that reanimates the dead. And then he kills her.

When she wakes up, she's still technically dead -- but she's being kept animate by an experimental drug called Returne, which the Pharmadene company has discovered. However, they will only keep her alive for as long as she's useful to them, and since their company has a leak connected to her funeral home, they want her to ferret out the supplier.

But while hired gun Joe Fideli and the icy security chief McCallister are helping her, Bryn knows that her days are literally numbered. And as she becomes tangled in elaborate webs of conspiracy and megalomania, she finds that her enemies are both inside and outside Pharmadene... and if she doesn't stop them, the entire world may be next.

It took me a long time to figure out why I simply didn't like "Working Stiff." But eventually I worked it out -- this book is possibly the darkest, bleakest story that Rachel Caine has written to date. And not in a good way, but in a "I want to suck on the business end of a Glock" way. People are paranoid, greedy and cold, all the heroine has to look forward to is a slow gruesome decay, and a supporting character is grotesquely tortured.

That dark mood also extends to Caine's writing, which is somewhat more morbid than usual. The story also unfolds in fits and starts -- we have short, dense packets of action and shocking twists, followed by slower lagging periods that made me itch for SOMETHING to happen. And Caine couldn't seem to make up her mind whether she's writing about nanite technology or magical zombie drugs. But Caine does deliver in the climactic final chapters, which are much tighter, faster and richly satisfying.

As for Bryn, she's a character who takes awhile to grow on you. She was never quite convincing as a hardened soldier, but she does have a likable vulnerability and determination that really blooms at the very end. McCallister is an interesting love interest, who takes a little while to de-ice enough to really connect with Bryn.

"Working Stiff" is a rather depressing urban fantasy with an unusual premise, but the ending does indicate that the next Revivalist book might be better. But this one is kind of a dark mess.

Working Stiff is yet another in a stream of novels recently that has gripped me in so tightly that I simply couldn't put it down and finished it in just a few days without even realising how quickly I was reading. The main thing I took notice of about this book is that it isn't a zombie novel in the traditional sense, in fact, the only thing that made this a zombie novel is that Bryn is a reanimated corpse. There are others like her as well, but they live just like normal human beings, or as close as you can get when a private corporation is keeping you on a tight leash and would rather see you rot than keep you alive, the only catch is that they are dead and must receive daily shots of this drug - Returné - to keep alive else they horribly and painfully decay. But there is no mindless staggering to find brains to eat at any cost, just a desperate struggle to remain alive when all but two, maybe three, people would rather you be otherwise. With all of that considered and the fast-paced action inbetween as they find a way to not only keep Bryn going with regular shots but also attempt to take down the company that they are owned by, who watch their every move, Working Stiff is most definitely an urban fantasy. And a damn good one at that.

I am fast becoming a Rachel Caine fangirl. I have now read three of her books and I have devoured each and every one. She is a genius at creating delightfully ordinary characters and thoroughly unique stories which are easy to read with just a sprinkling of humour and plenty of energy. This is exactly what I look for when I look for my next good read and Working Stiff has it down to a tee.

I was immediately drawn in by Bryn and how very like you and me she is. It begins with her first day working at Fairview Mortuary and her nervousness towards trying to impress her new boss and that her cheap clothes would make her stand out too much in such a rich person's environment. She is so very human and in some ways that makes her the perfect candidate to become a zombie because rather than forgetting what she is, you see her humanity shining through. She has a crazy, but loving, family and a brilliant bulldog called Mr French who might be one of my favourite characters of all time, though I did wonder what became of him in the last part of the novel. Joe Fideli is a warm and funny character with skills aplenty and a wife and kids, and Patrick McCallister is the kind of character that you slowly warm to throughout the story, not really letting on anything about himself until much later on. There are some nasty bad guys to hate, heart-pumping, tense scenes to keep you on the edge of your seat (or wherever you happen to be reading), and some horrid situations that are pretty upsetting, and I have only the utmost respect for any author that can make me feel strong emotions. Rachel Caine has created a very believable story in Working Stiff that shall be going on my `to re-read and recommend' pile.

Honestly, if you don't tend to enjoy adult urban fantasy then I doubt this will be for you, but on the other hand if you are a fan of unique, dark stories with sympathetic heroines then read Working Stiff. If you also happen to enjoy the odd crime novel on the side, I have a feeling this will be right up your street. Personally, I don't, but it is an excellent urban fantasy.

Please don't get me wrong - I think Rachel Caine is a brilliant author, and I love her MV series, even though I am old enough to be the mother of the target-audience of that series, and so I picked up this one with excitement...only to find myself wondering what light there could be at the end of the tunnel.

The other reviewers have done a great job summarising the tale, so I won't go into that, but I did feel that this book was particularly bleak. I could see no HEA for Bryn, and despite what I found out about her, I didn't feel like I knew her well enough to be rooting for her. Add in the fact that she's supposedly an ex-solder , and thereby would have been used to fighting, ambushes, with above average defense skills and strength, I found her to be nothing like that. She seemed to lack confidence and then seemed to accept what happened to her with utter passivity and surrealism.

Yes, the idea is interesting, but I cannot see where this series can go, and other than Bryn meeting her maker and being 'eternally rewarded' by him for her selflessness and sacrifice, I can't see any kind of HEA for her. So, whilst I will read the next book in the series if my library gets it in, for me, it won't be an autobuy. But maybe not if it comes out in the grey, dark and wet days of Oct/Nov/Dec, as that's a dull and dreary and bleak enough period as it is.